Media depositories are used to receive media items from a customer. One common type of media depository is a sheet media depository for receiving items of media in sheet form. For example, such items of media can be currency notes, checks, tickets, giros, receipts or the like.
Sheet media depositories are used in automated teller machines (ATMs) and other self-service terminals. Other such self-service terminals are vending machines, change machines, teller units, cash recyclers or the like. The sheet media depositories are used to identify, validate and store or return deposited sheets.
Some sheet depositories are capable of receiving a bunch of sheets in a loading area and then picking individual sheets from the bunch so that each sheet can then be identified and validated individually prior to storage of the validated sheet within a depository or returned to a customer. These depositories are sometimes referred to as bunch sheet depositories. Bunch sheet depositories may transport the bunch from a loading area to a picking area or the picking area may be adjacent to the loading area.
Bunches of items of media such as currency notes and/or checks are thus deposited by a user and, subsequent to a user agreement step and item verification step, these items are stored semi-permanently within a self-service terminal until security staff or bank staff come to empty the storage unit. The storage unit is sometimes referred to as a stacking bin. Alternatively, when an input item is identified as being an illicit or damaged item, the item is stored in a storage unit referred to as a reject bin.
In prior known ATMs, teller assist units, and other self-service terminals or the like which may or may not include a depository, items such as checks or currency notes are thus driven through a sheet transport system using pairs of rollers and/or belts that pinch the items and rotate to drive items along a pre-determined pathway. Often, at a final pair of rollers, the items are pushed into a stack of items being stored or dispensed. Because of the flexible nature of the items, it is difficult to ensure that transported items of media reach a desired destination.
Another problem which is well observed in prior art systems relates to the quality of the item of media which is to be transported. For example, for a new item such as a currency note, the finish of the sheet of paper which provides the item body has a reasonable degree of rigidity. However, over time this rigidity is lost as multiple users manipulate the item. Thus, an old item such as an old currency note can be highly flexible and lack stiffness. This makes the movement and location of such a note at a desired position difficult to achieve. In practice, the note must be supported over almost an entire transport pathway or a risk exists that the note will deviate from a desired transport path and become lost or tangled.